As she contemplates a run for the US Senate, Republican Kari Lake continues to make false claims about her loss in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election.
Lake’s speech at a Sunday rally in Scottsdale highlighted the serial election dishonesty that has been a central feature of her campaign rhetoric. Among other things, she claimed that:
• The 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. (Trump lost fair and square; his baseless “stolen” claims have been dismissed not only by the courts but by numerous officials who worked in his administration and on his campaign.)
• The 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election was stolen from her. (Lake lost by more than 17,000 votes to Democrat Katie Hobbs, in large part because people who voted for Republican candidates in other races on the ballot didn’t vote for Lake.)
• The Republicans who serve as the top election officials in Phoenix-area Maricopa County intentionally caused technical problems at Election Day voting locations to hurt her chances. (There is no evidence the problems were caused by deliberate malfeasance, as a judge found in rejecting Lake’s legal challenge.)
• Hobbs is an illegitimate “squatter” in the governor’s office. (Hobbs’ win was certified in December by outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey and outgoing state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, both Republicans, as well as Republican-appointed Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel. Lake then lost the court challenge in which she tried to overturn her defeat.)
We won’t devote additional space to fact-checking this vague conspiracy bunk. But as Lake continues to pursue a legal appeal, we will break down a specific new claim that she framed Sunday as one of her “big bombshells.” It is nothing of the sort.
One Lake’s most dramatic claims at the rally was this:…
Read the full article here
